Current Events, News that doesn't fit in other threads

http://democrats.reform.house.gov/

Check out the lead story from Rep. Waxman's office.

As if this surprises anyone, here at least.

I really don't get the whole abstinence idea. We want to protect our children against pregnancy and disease, so let's arm them with...ignorance? How many of these fools were virgins on their wedding days? Abstinence isn't working, so instead of seeing how much further we can stick our conservative american heads into the sand, why not tell the truth about condons and : gasp : the pill?

Actually the idea of abstinence is to get people to take responsibility for their decisions, which is all well and good and I agree whole heartedly.
But, (and you knew there was going to be one) with the prevalance of drug use, consentual and non-consentual, the permissive atmosphere of today's society.
And in the case of teenagers the dual factors of peer pressure and hormonal changes that affect so many aspects of a teens veiw of the world.
They have to provide a much more persuasive, truthful and relevant reason for it.
You can't lie to kids these days, they're smarter (in some ways), more worldly and have access to much more information than previous generations ever had.

This post has been edited by Belorin on Dec 3 2004, 08:48 PM

"A report released by Rep. Waxman shows that many federally funded abstinence-only education programs use curricula that distort information about the effectiveness of contraceptives, misrepresent the risks of abortion, blur religion and science, treat stereotypes about girls and boys as scientific fact, and contain basic scientific errors."

No kidding.

The ends have ALWAYS justified the means in a self-referential regime that admits of no relative standards. Burning the promiscuous little scofflaws at the stake if they don't come around isn't going too far, with that mentality.

Inaccuracy, blurring of issues, conflated stereotypes -- who gives a damn about all that, as long as you can mentally coerce the target population to do what you WANT them to, knowing what you want them to do is incontrovertibly RIGHT?

God, this makes my head hurt just the same. I work a little too close to the effort to get kids to protect themselves to find this irony really funny.

Wow, did you guys read the actual report? Facinating and a bit discouraging to think that people are being told this crap....the stuff about stereotypes is making me angry...

"Woman guage their success and happiness by their relationships with men. Mens hinges on their accomplishments"

Abstinence should only be practiced in moderation.

War in Iraq inspires TV Series

I'm not sure what to think....

Well, at least it's not a sitcom.

This is really dicey, as the article itself points out, because the whole thing is still unfolding historically, and the series professes to equal-opportunity critique. Meaning that either side of the viewership will endorse it when it seems to support their own point of view -- also called "confirmation bias" -- and think it bad and stupid (and partisan) when it doesn't. Unless it treads some odd ground that doesn't agree consistently with anyone, in which case it won't be relevant. (Even if it's true, ironically.) Need a sponsor with a taste for risk, eh?

In any case, it won't be a "Mash." I'm a little weirded out by their choosing "Over There" as a title though, what with the WWI resonances. Maybe they think no one remembers any of that any more, or the political implications.